ALBUM REVIEW: Fueled By Fear – Wraith
With a genesis as a solo project, Indiana-based blackened thrash outfit WRAITH have evolved. Now a four-piece and since 2017’s self-titled debut, they’ve been churning some powerful, blisteringly charged thrash. Their overall sound is more than just out and out speed. The up-tempo stylings of thrash have been given an additional shot in the arm with some raw punk, generating a gritty abrasion to the rapid riffs. Meanwhile the blackened aspect of their sound bleeds into the vocals and helps add a darker edge to WRAITH’s music. Fueled By Fear is the fifth instalment in their discography and with a nightmarish thematic of blended reality and fiction coupled with high octane metal, it’s set to make a sizeable mark on 2024.
Wasting no time in delivering the understanding of what WRAITH are all about, Asylum lines up a heady mix of choppy guitar chords, charging rhythms and a foreboding sense of things to come. As an instrumental, it’s ideal in laying bare the musical stylings of the band for those that are new to the sound. For the album as a whole, it’s a highly engaging two minutes that succeeds in grabbing the attention right from the off. While this opening track marks out the musical path that WRAITH tread, there is more than one dynamic to what they’re cooked up here. True, there is a consistency that warrants little surprise between the tracks. However, their delivery is exceptional and clearly they’ve enjoyed the writing of these songs.
The title track ticks all the boxes, a wave of feedback gives way to rapid fire riffing, pounding drums and a deeply satisfying groove. This level of head down no-nonsense metal is replicated in further tracks Shame In Suffering and Code Red, both of which feature very crowd friendly lyric lines which should go down a storm in a live setting. Vulture and Truth Decay retain the dyed in the wool thrash DNA but up the punk intensity. The upshot leads to an absolute ripper of a sound – a take no prisoners approach that offers a barely restrained assault and could potentially result in whiplash-related charges being filed. Such is the intensity of what WRAITH have produced that head-banging is a foregone conclusion.
The aggressive edge of the music is tempered somewhat by the rich sound that they’ve developed in the mix. With themes of religious and political upheaval along with dystopian fantasy blended with murky reality, WRAITH have nailed some of the more typical lyrical aspects of their chosen genre. However, the production values with the thickly layered textures and superbly executed dynamics offer a more studied approach to the thrash way of things. The culmination of this is an album that nurtures a recklessness that thrash and extreme metal contains and propels it forward with a fully developed production. The manic gleam in the eye is still there, however it’s been highly polished and makes it all the more imposing.
With more hooks than a chartered fishing trip and all the rough power of an electric sander, WRAITH have surely delivered one of the top thrash albums of 2024. Fueled By Fear is the type of album that will excite newer fans as well as those already established. 14 tracks that’ll pull your face off, rub salt in the wound and then stick it back on up-side just for a laugh.
Rating: 9/10
Fueled by Fear is out now via Prosthetic Records.
Like WRAITH on Facebook.